(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for differentiating haptic feelings by a selection menu of a rotary switch, and more particularly, such a method for differentiating haptic feelings by a selection menu of a rotary switch, in which haptic feelings of the rotary switch can be differentiated by each menu when scrolling the rotary switch in order to setup or select a variety of functions of an electronic product.
(b) Background Art
Haptics is a field of technology that enables various kinds of information to be provided to a user using the user's sense of touch or tactile sensation. In the haptic technology, a process is researched in which a human being mainly perceives a sense of touch and recognizes an object or generates emotion, and the process has been incorporated into devices and the like for providing information.
Such a haptic technology is applied to a range of different fields including cellular phones, motor vehicles, robots expressing sentiments, etc. In addition, haptic-related products are manufactured through a series of processes including recognition of a tactile sensation, modeling and rendering of the tactile sensation, production of a tactile sensation-creating device, and so forth, according to stages for creating an artificial tactile sensation. Examples of the manufactured haptic-related product include a touch manipulation switch of a cellular phone, a rotary switch mounted at a steering wheel to control a menu of a motor vehicle cluster, etc.
Meanwhile, a steering wheel of a motor vehicle is intensively equipped with various switch devices. Thus, as the number of a variety of automotive convenience accessories and electrical equipments are increased, the number of switches mounted on the steering wheel may also increase to improve convenience in their manipulation by a driver. However, increasing the number of switches mounted on the steering wheel can cause confusion to the driver and thereby decrease driving safety because a driver distracts his or her attention to the steering wheel to manipulate the switches during the driving of a vehicle.
To tackle this disadvantage, Korean Patent No. 10-0947729 discloses a haptic steering wheel switch device which is constructed to allow a user to feel a tactile sensation through vibration and resistance against turning the switch. The haptic steering wheel switch device disclosed provides a haptic rotary switch unit having a haptic rotary switch driver mounted in a steering wheel and is configured to generate a rotational force. The haptic steering wheel switch also includes a haptic rotary switch knob configured to receive the rotational force generated from the haptic rotary switch driver; and a haptic rotary switch sensing unit having a haptic rotary switch sensor and a haptic rotary switch sensor counterpart.
However, this conventional haptic steering wheel switch device suffers from one or more disadvantages in that whenever the driver manipulates the haptic rotary switch to select various menus on the haptic rotary switch, the tactile sensations by vibration and resistance against turning the switch for respective menus are transferred to the driver at the same haptic feeling strength, so that it becomes difficult to determine which menu was selected without looking at the menu itself thereby defeating the purpose of using a haptic switch all together. Consequently, since the driver must continue to watch a cluster display window on which menus are being displayed during the driving of the vehicle, driving safety is again degraded.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in that art.